Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 05/15/2008 9:39:08 AM PDT by CutePuppy
Gore Financially Invested in Climate Cause
By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
May 14, 2008
(CNSNews.com) - Weeks before announcing a $300-million, three-year advertising campaign to raise awareness about global warming, Al Gore was conducting a slide show for a group of investors in Monterey, Calif., touting companies such as Bloom Energy, Amryis , Mascoma and other firms that are not household names -- yet.
These bio-fuel and green technology firms could be poised to take off, Gore told his audience.
"Here are just a few of the investments I personally think make sense," he said during the March 1 presentation. "I have a stake in these so I'll have a disclaimer there." (See Video)
Gore's admitted stake in those companies comes from his partnership in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). Gore joined the firm last November, forging a partnership between KPCB and the London-based Generation Investment Management, a firm Gore chairs, and which steers investments in green and "sustainable" companies.
This month, KPCB announced it has invested $500 million into start-up "green growth" companies, and another $700 million into more established greentech, information technology and life science ventures.
The seed money is intended to "grow" the companies so they can be publicly traded. Both funds are closed to further investment. Last week, Generation Investment Management reportedly closed a $683-million "Climate Solutions Fund" to further investment.
The firms, with similar goals, differ in that GIM focuses mostly on public equities, while KPCB focuses on startup or expanding companies that haven't gone public yet.
But without government action on climate change, some business analysts say green companies backed by KPCB are either unlikely to be profitable or that their growth will be slow.
To Gore's critics, his financial stake in businesses that could profit from government policies designed to fight global warming demonstrates a motivation other than a selfless desire to protect the planet.
Gore has lobbied Congress and state governments to enact bolder environmental regulations. Gore's defenders counter that he and his partners are simply looking at companies that will have long-term sustainability during the "climate crisis."
"There are a bunch of folks that stand to make real money, who have invested a lot in companies that are not worth real money until the agenda that this ad campaign is advocating is achieved," Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-enterprise think tank, said in an interview.
Companies in the KPCB portfolio, as start-up companies, might be in greater need of a helping hand from government policy changes, but the larger, more established firms in the GIM portfolio also could benefit if the government manipulates the current market by mandating alternative fuels or imposing a cap and trade system.
As a private citizen, Gore is not required to publicly disclose how much of his personal fortune is invested in the venture capital firm. KPCB spokeswoman Brianna Woon declined to say how much Gore had invested in the firms, and she said the firms couldn't comment at this time on whether the greentech companies can succeed without government action.
Lack of government action could delay profits, but the free market is nonetheless moving toward clean energy on its own, said Gary Patterson, an analyst with the Fiscal Doctor Inc., of Wellesley, Mass. He predicts a good return for the venture capital firm's green investments.
"It would be very helpful if you have government initiative. Without it, it will take longer for these to be economically viable," Patterson told Cybercast News Service
However, Bert Ely, a financial analyst with Ely & Associates of Alexandria, Va., is skeptical that the kind of green investment portfolio Gore is advocating can be profitable without government action. History has shown green companies to be risky ventures, he says
"Wind power, solar and bio-fuels all operate on tax subsidies or purchase requirements," Ely told Cybercast News Service. "The government stimulates demand. The most notorious subsidy is the 51 cent gas credit for ethanol."
"To the extent that you got some kind of government mandate here, whether it is cap-and-trade or a purchasing requirement, a taxpayer subsidy, to me that's a dicey way to look for a return on a venture because what the government giveth it can taketh away -- and often does," Ely said. "You're making a political bet, not an economic bet."
(A cap and trade system would set limits on the amount of carbon a company can emit. The limits are called a "cap." If a company has to exceed the limit, it would be allowed to buy credits from companies that pollute less. This transfer would be the "trade.")
In public statements, KPCB has pointed to the likelihood of new government policies as a selling point for investors.
"The growing sense of global urgency over our twin crisis -- climate change and energy security -- is now driving businesses to become green, consumers to demand green and policy makers to drive policies to accelerate the market adoption of green products," KPCB partner John Denniston said in a May 1 statement announcing the new ventures.
James Ritterbusch, a petroleum analyst and president of Galena, Ill.-based Ritterbusch & Associates, is skeptical about the ability of the green firms to succeed without government help.
"It would be a challenge," Ritterbusch told Cybercast News Service . "Ethanol would be a model. It was very difficult for ethanol to make inroads at all. Without a subsidy, it's an uphill battle."
Gore's 'We campaign'
Gore's ad campaign, titled "We," includes several commercials. In one of them, the conservative Rev. Pat Robertson joins the liberal Rev. Al Sharpton in calling for action to stop global warming. Another TV ad features former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and current Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warning about the danger of climate change.
Neither Gore's Nashville-based office nor his non-profit organization Alliance for Climate Protection (ACP), which is sponsoring the campaign, responded to inquiries for this report.
The non-profit ACP has partnerships with United Steel Workers of American and the Girl Scouts of America, among others.
The ACP's Web site says the advertising effort is not just intended to lobby for legislation.
"The We campaign is not about supporting a particular bill or resolution," the site says. "It is about stimulating a cultural shift around this issue. Unfortunately, our leaders won't take the bold steps necessary until the American people demand real change. The We campaign is designed to catalyze this shift in public awareness and engagement."
Green business 'will make money'
Last November KPCB and Generation Investment Management announced a "global collaboration to find, fund and accelerate green businesses, technology and policy solutions with the greatest potential to help solve the current climate crisis."
When Gore joined KPCB as a partner, KCPB's John Doerr joined the Generation Investment Management advisory board.
GIM's long-term strategy for investing goes further than environmental factors, said company spokesman Richard Campbell. He said other sustainability factors, such as corporate governance and staff retention, also play a role.
"It's too simple to say that. It's just too simplistic. Generation's success is not based on a cap and trade system in the U.S.," Campbell told Cybercast News Service.
"I don't think you can read anything into Al Gore's campaign to make people understand the severity of the climate crisis for the last few decades with the performance of the fund management business that he chairs," Campbell continued.
The GIM portfolio includes investments in firms such as Johnson Controls, which could profit from the battery systems for low-carbon emissions vehicles in the future. It also includes General Electric, which has teamed with the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), an alliance promoting a cap and trade system to the United States.
Campbell said the purpose of GIM is to make money for its investors, and anticipating the climate crisis is one way of doing that.
"Generation believes that the climate crisis will have an enormous impact on financial services, will have an enormous impact on business," Campbell continued. "Those businesses that are best able to take advantage of the opportunity for climate change will make money and those business that aren't ready to face up to the challenges of the climate crisis will lose money. That is the basic premise about long term investment."
Other companies in the Generation portfolio are Metabolix, a firm that develops bio-plastics, and alternative fuels; Waters Inc., a laboratory company that provides products for health care delivery, environmental management food safety and water quality; and Techne Corporation, which manufactures biological products.
"He's already in the global warming business," Matthew Vadum told Cybercast News Service . Vadum is a research associate for the Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank that has investigated Gore's financial interests in the global warming movement. "I believe Al Gore is a true believer, but he also is a smart businessman."
Copyright 1998-2006 Cybercast News Service
... his financial stake in businesses that could profit from government policies designed to fight global warming demonstrates a motivation other than a selfless desire to protect the planet.
—
another “Inconvenient Truth”
Gore’s crowd - just another special interest group
If we get caps and trades, there’s gonna be alot of money to be made off hot air!
This whole carbon credit thing is;
Say I use x amount of gasoline over a year, and that gasoline required $500 to produce. If the taxes I paid at the pump totaled $400, I have a $100 dollar "bill" to pay.
I can then buy $100 worth of carbon credits (that "offsets my carbon footprint") from algore and assholeshitates (who's in the business of, ohhh ... saaayyyy .. researching wind power) and, after algore and assholeshitates take their fees and costs, will then "apply" the remainder ($3 ?) to the research of wind power.
How correct is my thinking?
As I’ve said.........follow the money and the fools behind it.
KEY POINT.
Who knew you could sell Snake Oil in this day and age. GREEN Snake Oil, but Snale Oil nevertheless.
It's one thing for governments to occasionally or initially subsidize some massive and not [initially] designed for profit R&D and general science, like Manhattan Project, Superconducting Super Collider or Large Hadron Collider, space exploration which cannot or would not - because of scale or potential for profit - be done by private companies, but subsidizing production of non-essential alternative materials or products will only introduce inefficiency and distortion of marketplace and is a step towards socialism.
“To Gore’s critics, his financial stake in businesses that could profit from government policies designed to fight global warming demonstrates a motivation other than a selfless desire to protect the planet.”
It’s always about what profits Al. How soon we forget....
The Inconvenient Truth Al Gore Hopes You Forget! (Al Gore - the OTHER OIL MAN....)
[snip]http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=468
[snip]Occidental’s planned drilling of the Elk Hills doesn’t only threaten the memory of the Kitanemuk [Indian tribe}. Environmentalists say a rare species of fox, lizard and the kangaroo rat would also be threatened by Oxy’s plans. A lawsuit has been filed under the Endangered Species Act. But none of that has given pause to Occidental or the politician who helped engineer the sale of the drilling rights to the federally-owned Elk Hills. That politician is Al Gore.
Gore recommended that the Elk Hills be sold as part of his 1995 “Reinventing Government” National Performance Review program. Gore-confidant (and former campaign manager) Tony Cohelo served on the board of directors of the private company hired to assess the sale’s environmental consequences. The sale was a windfall for Oxy. Within weeks of the announced purchase Occidental stock rose ten percent.
That was good news for Gore. Despite controversy over Dick Cheney’s plans to keep stock options if elected, most Americans don’t know that we already have a vice president with oil company stocks. Before the Elk Hills sale, Al Gore controlled between $250,000-$500,000 of Occidental stock (he is executor of a trust that he says goes only to his mother, but will revert to him upon her death). After the sale, Gore began disclosing between $500,000 and $1 million of his significantly more valuable stock.
Nowhere is Al Gore’s environmental hypocrisy more glaring than when it comes to his relationship with Occidental. While on the one hand talking tough about his “big oil” opponents and waxing poetic about indigenous peoples in his 1992 book “Earth in the Balance,” the Elk Hills sale and other deals show that money has always been more important to Al Gore than ideals.
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=Elk+hills
Farmers cashing in on carbon credits (The Truth behind the Global Warming Scam)
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=714488
“..al-Gore is a smart businessman, getting rich by trading on ignorance..”
Getting rich? I always heard that he was worth many millions of dollars already. Now he wants to become even more wealthy by screwing his own country? Totally incomprehensible to me.
I appreciate your desire to make some sense of it, but you are making it way too complicated... Basically, they will use their magic calculator to compute your imaginary "carbon footprint" and impose a "carbon tax" - that's what the reality of This whole carbon credit thing is. Think of it as "Carbon IRS" on steroids. It's a dream come true for lawyers, tax professionals and politicians and is just another mechanism to suck the money from or destroy any productive person or enterprise.
See also post #7 by Doctor Raoul, with the difference that Green Snake Oil will be sold to you by mandate of the government and you will have no choice of not buying it. Just like corporate tax, we will pay for it which will only accelerate the move of means of production overseas or to Latin America.
"For cropland to qualify for carbon credits, it must be farmed with no-till or conservation tillage practices. Not tilling up the land each season means the carbon dioxide in the soil is not released into the atmosphere, Raemisch said.
A farmer has to adhere to certain specific land management practices, she said. But many farmers in Wisconsin already are doing this and have been for some time, she said.
"If they're already practicing no-till or conservation tillage, it's a way for them to get paid for just doing what they're already doing," Raemisch said. "So why not?"
Don't plant your garden ... don't kick a dirt clod, don't, don't, don't, don't, ... ahhh .. hell.
Yeah, as I clicked on "Post" button I thought that "richer" would be a tad more appropriate. I heard somewhere, but have no verification of it, that when he left office in 2001 he was worth about $2 million, and that now is worth about $250 million (he got a lot of options from his positions as Director on BoD of Google, Apple and other companies).
That's how "rich get richer" in the Democrat-ic world - which is "people of the government, by the government, for the government".
Smart Businessman, just a nice way of saying a crook.
Al baby, Go home and take care of your family and stop promoting yourself.
And algore’s apparently behind the speculation that’s driving oil prices up through the International Exchange and his partners in the Climate Group.
Hillary & Obama — the gift that keeps on giving.
Me to Gore .
SLAP !!!!!
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